slop (Select Operation) is an application that querys for a selection from the user and prints the region to stdout. It grabs the mouse and turns it into a crosshair, lets the user click and drag to make a selection (or click on a window) while drawing a pretty box around it, then finally prints the selection's dimensions to stdout.

Features

Hovering over a window will cause a selection rectangle to appear over it.

Clicking on a window makes slop return the dimensions of the window.

Clicking and dragging causes a selection rectangle to appear, renders pretty well (compared to scrot). And will return the dimensions of that rectangle in absolute screen coords.

On startup it turns your cursor into a crosshair, then adjusts the cursor into angles as you drag the selection rectangle.

Supports simple arguments:

Change selection rectangle border size.

Select X display.

Set padding size, even negative padding sizes!

Set click tolerance for if you have a shaky mouse.

Set the color of the selection rectangles to match your theme! (Even supports transparency!)

Remove window decorations from selections.

Practical applications

slop can be used to create a video recording script in only two lines of code.

slop lets you select a region or window and ffmpeg will record it in the format of your choice!
Combined with keybinds and a server on your filesystem you can make a really neat and unobtrusive screenshooter.

You can also take images using imagemagick like so:

#!/bin/bash
eval `slop`
import -window root -crop $G ~/myimage.png

If you don't like ImageMagick's import: Check out maim for a better screenshot utility.

Lets see some action

Ok. Here's a comparison between 'scrot -s's selection and slop's:

You can see scrot leaves garbage lines over the things you're trying to screenshot!
While slop not only looks nicer, it's impossible for it to end up in screenshots or recordings because it waits for DestroyNotify events before completely shutting down. Only after the window is completely destroyed can anything take a screenshot.

Install using CMake (Requires CMake)

Make sure to check out and install maim too if you want a proper screenshot utility.

help

slop v4.1.15
Copyright (C) 2014 Dalton Nell, Slop Contributors
(https://github.com/naelstrof/slop/graphs/contributors)
Usage: slop [options]
slop (Select Operation) is an application that queries for a selection from the
user and prints the region to stdout.
-h, --help Print help and exit
-V, --version Print version and exit
Options
--xdisplay=hostname:number.screen_number
Sets the x display.
--nokeyboard Disables the ability to cancel selections with
the keyboard. (default=off)
-b, --bordersize=INT Set the selection rectangle's thickness. Does
nothing when --highlight is enabled.
(default=`5')
-p, --padding=INT Set the padding size of the selection. Can be
negative. (default=`0')
-t, --tolerance=INT How far in pixels the mouse can move after
clicking and still be detected as a normal
click instead of a click and drag. Setting
this to 0 will disable window selections.
(default=`2')
-g, --gracetime=FLOAT Set the amount of time before slop will check
for keyboard cancellations in seconds.
(default=`0.4')
-c, --color=FLOAT,FLOAT,FLOAT,FLOAT
Set the selection rectangle's color. Supports
RGB or RGBA values.
(default=`0.5,0.5,0.5,1')
-n, --nodecorations Attempt to select child windows in order to
avoid window decorations. (default=off)
--min=INT Set the minimum output of width or height
values. This is useful to avoid outputting 0.
Setting min and max to the same value
disables drag selections. (default=`0')
--max=INT Set the maximum output of width or height
values. Setting min and max to the same value
disables drag selections. (default=`0')
-l, --highlight Instead of outlining selections, slop
highlights it. This is only useful when
--color is set to a transparent color.
(default=off)
-f, --format=STRING Set the output format string. Format specifiers
are %x, %y, %w, %h, %i, %g, and %c.
(default=`X=%x\nY=%y\nW=%w\nH=%h\nG=%g\nID=%i\nCancel=%c\n')
Examples
$ # Gray, thick, transparent border for maximum visiblity.
$ slop -b 20 -c 0.5,0.5,0.5,0.8
$ # Remove window decorations.
$ slop --nodecorations
$ # Disable window selections. Useful for selecting individual pixels.
$ slop -t 0
$ # Classic Windows XP selection.
$ slop -l -c 0.3,0.4,0.6,0.4
$ # Change output format to use safer parsing
$ slopoutput=$(slop -f "%x %y %w %h")
$ X=$(echo $slopoutput | awk '{print $1}')
$ Y=$(echo $slopoutput | awk '{print $2}')
$ W=$(echo $slopoutput | awk '{print $3}')
$ H=$(echo $slopoutput | awk '{print $4}')
Tips
* You can use the arrow keys to move the starting point of a
drag-selection, just in case you missed it by a few pixels.
* If you don't like a selection: you can cancel it by right-clicking
regardless of which options are enabled or disabled for slop.
* If slop doesn't seem to select a window accurately, the problem could be
because of decorations getting in the way. Try enabling the --nodecorations
flag.